Along the Outer Banks, Cautious Optimism Returns Along with Tourists

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BUXTON — The telephone won't stop ringing at the
front desk of the Outer Banks Motel.

That's hardly a nuisance to Carol Dillon, since most of the
calls are from people who want to be penciled in to her
reservations ledger for the 50-unit resort she opened more than 40
years ago along N.C. 12 in Buxton.

She and other business owners lost a lot of customers when
Hurricanes Bertha and Fran forced hundreds of thousands to evacuate
the Outer Banks last summer. The storms bypassed the popular beach
destination and laid waste to beaches south of here to the tune of
billions of dollars.

Despite out-of-state rumors that the Outer Banks also suffered
harm, most of the tourists that left are coming back.

``We've had a few people who had their reservations cancelled
because they went somewhere else,'' said Dillon, 68. ``But I told
them, `There's absolutely no damage here.'''

Few tourists who come annually to the hurricane-prone Outer
Banks appear to be taking the near misses as hints it's time to try
another beach.

``If there was a threat of a hurricane, we would be warned
about
it, wouldn't we?'' said Jerry Turnbaugh, 34, of Baltimore, walking
along the Kill Devil Hills beach at sunset recently with daughters
Lindsey, 8, and Sara, 6. ``The hurricane season doesn't bother us
at all.''

The season always makes for anxious locals who have one eye on
The Weather Channel and the other eye on tourist dollars.

``I think you're always worried,'' John Couch said. He runs
Lighthouse Auto Parts down the road from Dillon's motel. ``You do a
lot wishing a storm goes the other way. You mentally prepare for it
every year ... It's always a false sense of security.''

So far, hotels and cottages on Hatteras Island and north across
the Bonner Bridge to heavily-developed Nags Head and Kill Devil
Hills are filling up at the same or a better rate than this time
last year, according to county tourism officials.

Bookings for Midgett Realty's 325 units were at 83 percent
capacity for the season through June 15, compared to 73 percent on
June 15 last year, says rental manager Susie Austin.

The year-round Dare County population of 20,000 balloons to
more
than 200,000 during the summer. Hotel and motel revenues total more
than $2 million daily, says county tourism spokeswoman Chris
Mackey. That doesn't include the millions tourists spend on beach
shirts at Wings, miniature golf at Jurassic Putt and hang-gliding
at Kitty Hawk Kites.

So it hurts even more when business loses even one day due to
the threat of bad weather. Dare County lost several days last year
when evacuations were ordered due to hurricanes Bertha and Fran.

Even storms like those that never reach the Outer Banks can
wreck business. News that Fran caused calamity on the North
Carolina coast gave the mistaken impression that included the Outer
Banks.

``We heard on the news that Nags Head got hit,'' said Ray Lowe,
67, a retired accountant from Indianapolis, enjoying the Outer
Banks with his wife and friends. ``But we didn't see anything.''

Don't think that Hatteras Island residents scoff at hurricanes.
The island took the brunt of the last storm to strike the island -
Emily in 1993. It caused $13 million in damages, the worst since
Hurricane Donna in 1960.

Dillon is reminded of Emily every day: a waterline three feet
high on the juniper-paneled walls of the hotel parlor mark how high
the flood waters reached. The roof of Couch's business ripped off
his building like a sardine can, leading to $250,000 in damage.

Moving south along N.C. 12 to Frisco, Emily's wrath can be seen
along the roadside nearly four years later. Pine trees broken like
match sticks remain split in a patch of forest land.

Repairs are going slowly at the home of Harry Willis, recently
hammering screen wire on a chicken coop flooded by Emily.
Storm-pushed water from the ocean and the Pamlico Sound drowned 125
of his chickens.

``We're 95 percent back on our feet,'' said Lee Anne Willis,
Harry's daughter-in-law, who lives next door. Since the storm,
they've erected their homes on 10-foot stilts so they'll rise above
the next storm.

At 66, Harry Willis has seen many storms, including the 1936
storm that prompted his family to move from Hatteras village to
somewhat higher ground at Frisco. Emily is still fresh in his mind.

``That last storm, that was the one that hurt us the most,'' he
said, taking a breather from working on the coop. ``I'm hoping that
the next one will miss us.''

The next one doesn't seem to matter this day at Hatteras
village, where tourists waited in their cars in the sun-glistened
morning to take the ferry over to Ocracoke Island.

``We'll deal with it when it comes,'' said Chris Teutsch of
Westchester, Penn., traveling with his wife and their two daughters
in the family minivan.

Back in Nags Head atop the sand dunes of Jockey's Ridge State
Park, the view of cottages and hotels sitting between the ocean and
Roanoke Sound gives perspective to the destruction a storm could
cause.

``It would be terrible if one hit here,'' said Bert Moore, a
retired minister from Virginia Beach, Va. ``... It's beautiful here
in the summer.''